The insulating element of the stem of the present, state-of-the-art, standard urological resectoscope is affixed to the internal stem and, jointly with the latter, can be pulled out of the external stem in a proximal direction. Accordingly, the outside diameter of the insulating element must be smaller than the inside diameter of the external stem. Those insulating element outside-diameters that may still be tolerated by the patient therefore mandate a relatively narrow inside diameter of the insulating stem. On the other hand said insulating stem inside diameter determines the maximally feasible radius of the cutting loop. Yet, the cutting loop should be as large as possible to speed up resection.
A resectoscope, of the kind described, is known from the German patent document DE 101 22 465 C1. Therein the insulating element is affixed to the external stem and therefore may exhibit a larger inside diameter, making possible a larger cutting loop.
In such known resectoscope models, the insulating element's outside diameter corresponds to the external stem's outside diameter. The insulating element and the external stem are overlapping in their mutual affixation zone. As a result, the insulating element's inside diameter is smaller than that of the external stem. Again the size of the cutting loop is restricted.
The objective of the present invention is to create a urological resectoscope of the above kind that allows enlarging the cutting loop.